They tell me I'll live to be 77, but they don't know who's out to get me!

Mine was 93. Of course, that's not taking into account the fact that my name (and probably anyone who posts here against the Bushies) is on a list of "Get First" once the shrub completes his ascent to dictator.

Catherine

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"Behind every great fortune lies a great crime."Honore de Balzac

"Democrats work to help people who need help. That other party, they work for people who don't need help. That's all there is to it."~Harry S. Truman

93 is getting on. I wonder if social security will be there to help you age gracefully, or it's off to the soybean/lentil red white and blue processing plant. You must be a green tea totaller to get such an age.

Eddie Albert must have been doing something right. He was 99 when he died today!

With the Bushie Rethugs in power, who can say anything with confidence about SS? I'm more dependent on my retirement income plus investments I've made over time than I am on SS.

I think one's genes more than anything else determines longevity. I had a maternal great-uncle who lived to be almost 101 with absolutely no health problems except he began to lose his memory around the age of 96. He lived in a nursing home the last few years of his life, but still had periods of lucidity. My maternal grandmother lived to be 87, and my maternal grandfather was almost 80 when he died of heart failure.

My father turns 80 in September and has never spent one night in a hospital. He makes a large veggie garden each summer, roams the mountains in the fall hunting ginsing, and helps look after my 76 year old mother, who is wheel-chair bound after having had a stroke. His people all lived to ripe old ages of 80 or better. But, diabetes runs in my mother's family, too, so it's just the luck of the draw, I guess.

Something is going to get us, one way or the other, but I think the best things we can do for our own longevity is to not smoke, control stress, exercise regularly, eat reasonably, and continue being sexually active right up to the day we die.

Catherine

_________________

"Behind every great fortune lies a great crime."Honore de Balzac

"Democrats work to help people who need help. That other party, they work for people who don't need help. That's all there is to it."~Harry S. Truman

Living to an old age seems nice, especially when you're young. But, one has to question the quality of life you will "enjoy" living to, say, 95.

Will I be a drooling old man, peeing my pant, living in a home for old folks? Is that really living, or simply waiting to die? Or, will I be some senile cranky old man that no one likes to be around? I fear being like that more than I do dying.

Very few who live to be that age still maintain active lives and are somewhat independent....that is not the norm, but it gives others hope I imagine.

It's like seeing that 50 year old person who still has the body shape of a 30 year old...nice to wish for, but not the norm. But, it gives you a personal goal, I guess.

For me, it's the quality of my life that I look forward to. I do not consider being like the above example as enjoying old age. So, with that in mind, I would prefer to die alive and living and functioning in my 70's.

As people, and like every other living thing on the planet, we live, we die and life goes on as it has for billions before us and maybe billions after us. I don't believe in god or any of that "life after death" b/s so I give myself no false hopes of some everlasting life.

In regards to social security, there would not be a problem if the government kept their greedy paws out of it and didn't take the money to use for other things. It's hard to understand why we can come up with 300 billion for a war in a few short months, yet social security is running out of money.

Now, they want americans to be like those hyperactive morons you see on wall street buying and selling stocks. We will all be walking around with cell phones all day buying and selling and stressing ourselves out...lol
I can see the "new society" now...,,stressed out and dead of heart attacks by 45.

The earth itself may be a soul in time. The first nations believe that the trees talk,sing and have a spirit. Plants are 98% genetically the same as humans. We are all from the same source. And it's universal. Looking back in time and space is like trying to analyse the genetic code. Are we just a strand of the infinite? A speck of carbon dust in a sea of complexity. Are we part of the chain? Water has a circle. Can we be like water? Being 90% water, I guess we can. The soul is electrical. We are elemental with a positive charge. 21 grams heading to ground.

What if a mountain has a soul. It has a rather long lifetime on earth -From birth to inevitable erosion, a speck of dust returning to the sea. The power of the electron is exemplified in this. All elements work together to free its energy. Laws of physics say, What, about matter and energy?

Don't forget- to a speck of dust, the sea seems infinite. What we can't understand may be our eventuality.

Don't lose your spirituality, but believe what you will, as long as intention is grounded in respect, honesty and the pursuit of truth, MGA,(I had an MGB once) the infinite possibilities remain. Man and nature are spirits locked in a codependant reality of consensual existence. Don't lose yourself and nature over the clever lies that fail to explain our earthly purpose- to love and to care for all things our mother earth and the creator brought together, so that we could experience life. The creator could be nothing more than an electron. It is in our hands and could be the power of the soul. It's the energy that is the chain of reality. Stay grounded.

I've also heard that if you're born a catholic, they've got you for life. Good to hear you got over it. No reason to give up on your spirituality because of bad religion. Seems like it's intentional- meant to turn us from the earth and ourselves as real. Since man can't seem to get it straight, respect your mother- Peace and love to the earth. And have a long happy cognizant life.

92 it said. If I'm healthy and active like most all of my relatives were before they died that would be great! My greatfather I know was still ice-skating at age 92. My mother (70) still runs and skiis in races. I hope I get her energy when I grow up.

i am aware of the earth and nature, DO.g's...no problem there. i even gave up hunting many years ago because i felt i didn't have a right to kill any animal.

92 nina? what of the quality of one's life? given the option, would you rather be living till you are a 100 year old, drooling, wheel chair bound, diaper wearing, hand fed, can't see or hear, shaking, and a no-memory person?

i fear that worse than death....so, i have my own philosphy about living: i'll eat, drink and smoke until i die, at least when i die, i'll die happy.

very very few people live to be in their 90's and fuction fully...not the norm tho.